The present invention generally relates to the use of ethoxylated fatty acid esters as self-emulsifiable compounds, particularly useful for preparing phytosanitary treatment products or medicines for veterinary or human use.
It is known that an emulsion is a mixture of water and oil stabilised by surfactants.
The dispersion of oil in water (or water in oil) in the form of droplets sufficiently fine for obtaining a stable emulsion necessitates bringing about energy which is often considerable.
Furthermore, any oily preparation is called self-emulsifiable which is capable of forming a stable emulsion with an aqueous phase, practically without bringing about energy, by dispersion in the aqueous phase by slow mechanical stirring for example.
Self-emulsifiable compositions are particularly appreciated each time that mixtures with an aqueous phase, generally water, must be prepared without the need for efficient means of stirring.
Thus, it is notably a matter of:
within the context of domestic uses, e. g. for the preparation of household cleaning materials or gardening products; PA1 within the context of agricultural uses, e. g. for the preparation of phytosanitary products intended for storage in tanks or other containers; PA1 in the pharmaceutical field, e. g. for the preparation of extemporaneously made medicines. PA1 R.sub.1, R.sub.3, R.sub.5, R.sub.6, R.sub.8 and R.sub.10 represent a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon chain having from 5 to 30 carbon atoms; PA1 R.sub.2, R.sub.4, R.sub.7 and R.sub.9 represent a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon chain having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms; PA1 the total number of ethylene oxide molecules represented in the above-mentioned formulae I, II and III by k, l+m, n+p+q respectively being an integer such that the HLB value (hydrophilic-lipophilic balance) of said compounds be between about 4 and about 10, preferably between about 5 and about 9; and, preferably still, neighbouring 5. PA1 as self-emulsifiable compounds which are particularly useful for preparing phytosanitary products or medicines for veterinary or human use. PA1 Ethoxylated fatty acid esters having the above-mentioned formula I in which R.sub.1 is selected from palmitic, stearic, ricinoleic, oleic, linoleic and linolenic acid residues; R.sub.2 represents a methyl radical and k is an integer between 1 and 5, preferably equal to 2; PA1 Ethoxylated fatty acid esters having the above-mentioned formula III in which: PA1 Ethoxylated fatty acid esters having the above-mentioned formula III in which: PA1 Ethoxylated fatty acid esters having the above-mentioned formula III in which: PA1 SI represents the saponification index of the product measured according to the NFT 60206 standard; and PA1 AI represents the acid index of the acid used for the manufacture of the product measured according to the NFT 60204 standard. PA1 either by an esterification of ethoxylated alcohols as described in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,539,518 document which is incorporated herein by way of reference; PA1 or, preferably, by ethoxylation of esters having the general formulae: ##STR2## PA1 R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, R.sub.4, R.sub.5, R.sub.6, R.sub.7, R.sub.8, R.sub.9, R.sub.10 are such as previously defined, PA1 as described in the GB 1,050,497 document which is also incorporated herein by way of reference. PA1 R.sub.1, R.sub.3, R.sub.5, R.sub.6, R.sub.8 and R.sub.10 represent a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon chain having from 5 to 30 carbon atoms; PA1 R.sub.2, R.sub.4, R.sub.7 and R.sub.9 represent a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon chain having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms;
Self-emulsifiable preparations have been described for a long time in the state of the art, especially in the agrochemical field.
These preparations are generally constituted of mineral oils or petroleum fractions to which not very harmful surfactants such as ethoxylated alkyl phenols in particular have been added.
Such preparations are however weakly biodegradable and therefore represent a potential danger to the environment, which has limited the development of them over the last years.
Recently, research has been orientated towards substitute products for petroleum oils and the use has been recommended to this end of biodegradable oils such as triglycerides or methyl esters of fatty acids in particular.
However, these oils are much more difficult to emulsify than mineral oils.
Furthermore, it has also been envisaged to replace ethoxylated alkyl phenols by biodegradable surfactants, but this has proved to be extremely difficult for cost and efficiency reasons.